224. Lecture Capture: When "Good Enough" Can be Just Right

Robert Capps wrote an intriguing article, The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple is Just Fine (Wired Magazine, Aug. 24, 2009), where he cites examples in the market place where consumers are choosing the "good enough" over higher-quality alternatives.  Consider the popularity of MP3, YouTube, Skype, Flip video camera, and Google Apps. 

How does this relate to education?  Lecture capture has been generating a lot of buzz as online programs seek to deliver content via the web.  Sophisticated (and expensive) systems are on the market that record everything that a professor delivers in the classroom.  High-end video editing tools can produce an impressive end product.

For Taylor's online program we have experimented with high-quality lecture videos, setting up studio conditions and investing hours of time filming and editing.  What we're discovering, however, is that a simple webcam and tools such as Camtasia (inexpensive) and Movie Maker (free) might just be "good enough".  Such low-budget videos are:  1) quick to produce, and instructors can do much of the work on their own,  2) ideal for a 6-10 minute mini lesson*, 3) small in size and easy on bandwidth,  4) of sufficient quality to satisfy the YouTube generation (as long as audio is clear and slides can be read), and 5) easy to update in courses that require semester to semester tweaking.  

*We need to get away from the idea of posting 50-minute lectures online.  Students have difficulty engaging in an hour long face-to-face classroom lecture.  How long do you suppose they will sit in front of their computer watching a long lecture before their cell phone comes out and they open up Facebook?  (How many of us watch an hour-long online webinar without checking our email?)

Comments

[Ben Ranfeld]

Yeah, we've been discovering some of the same things. For our distance courses we've been advising faculty to try and keep lectures around 20min with an immediate follow-up activity for the students to practice what they just learned.

[Michael Berger]

Gary, just came across your blog through a search. Great stuff. I head up marketing for Tegrity, and wanted to make a quick comment on this post in particular.

First off, I agree with some of your points. The tools you specified are perfectly adequate for mini-lessons. Also, I agree that students are unlikely to watch an hour long lecture online start-to-finish. In fact, our research into millions of student views shows that, on average, a student watches about 15 minutes of each hour-long lecture, and they jump around when reviewing (as they are wanting to review specific material for exam preparation, or learn challenging subject matter through repetition).

That being said, in my opinion, while the "capture" portion will quickly become commoditized, it is the retrieval portion and the associated capabilities (especially search) that represent the true value of a lecture capture solution. In fact, the real value of creating high-quality Hollywood-style videos is questionable for lecture capture in general (which you alluded to in your YouTube generation comment).

To provide a specific example, let's use a student preparing for an exam, which covers material presented in 4 classes. This student is especially unclear on two topics that will be on the exam. In the Camtasia or MovieMaker world, the student would have to find the material to review on these topics by opening each video from the 4 classes separately, and then watching each one (or continually fast forwarding or jumping around) until they found the information they needed.

Now take the same scenario for a student using Tegrity. The student would simply type the word of phrase associated with the topic they were looking for, it would return search results across ALL the course recordings, and then they could jump right to those spots. As you can imagine, a much more efficient process.

Lastly, another big reason to move to a lecture capture solution is for the automation. In other words, these systems have the ability to let the instructor focus on their core mission, and the lectures simply show up online automatically. In other words, no extra work - which is key for wide adoption (and wide benefit).

[Craig Crook]

I agree Gary, Seth Godin explains this extremely well in a post about the difference between slick and real... http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/the-dead-zone-o.html

BTW -- I weekly, if not daily find great tools that are game changers... my current favorites: screenr.com (free screencasts over the web/no download), livestream.com (free "web tv") and posterous.com (content sharing made easy)

All the best,
craig d crook

[Dave Navis]

Hi Gary ... I'm adding you to my rss feed. I've read the last few entries .. I like the way you write - short and sweet. I try to do the same on my blog. dcnavis.edublogs.org/.

We are experimenting with a new video conferenceing tool that we host ourself. Check out BigBlueButton. The price is right ... it's free.

I'm in Guangzhou China now teaching MS/HS technology. We're heading into a 1:1 program next year. We're at the point of do we go Mac or PC. Got any thoughts?

Nice to be in touch again, Just got back to Manila last Chinese New Year. A lot has changed and a lot hasn't. - Dave

[olive oil health]

But you can't get a good olive oil from Italy from mass producers.

[Gary Neal]

I really enjoy reading your blog. You always have such good tips about connecting us to these millenials. Lecture capture is an intriguing tool. I think I find it so captivating because of its versatility. You could use it to totally skip out on class, or you could use it to review things that you may have missed. So cool!